GMAT Strategy

I wouldn't use a paper test as a good gauge of your scoring ability on the CAT. The algorithm is completely different, so how you take the test can make a big difference to your score. Also, I'm not sure whether Kaplan is using the scoring instructions that were in place when the paper test first came out or whether the company has somehow adapted the paper scoring instructions to map to the current CAT subscores + percentiles, but it sounds like the former, because that would account for the lower subscores but same overall score that you received. The scoring range has changed over the years. (The last paper tests were given in 1997.)

The single best gauge of your current scoring ability is GMATPrep. There are only two unique GMATPrep tests, though, and many people like to save those for later in the prep process. Some people will take one early, to gauge the current level, and then save the second one for close to the end.

Most people study for between 2 and 4 months. Those aiming for a 700 are more likely to spend 3-4 months (or longer, depending upon the situation).

You haven't studied much yet, so you shouldn't be worried about the test scores right now - it takes time to see any significant improvement in scores. You should be thinking, though, about whether you feel more comfortable, efficient, and effective with the types of problems and content areas you have been studying. If you are not studying in an effective way, then it will be a lot harder to get good results. So, take some time to look around here and to formulate a plan for HOW you want to study - don't just do a bunch of problems and then read the solutions without really thinking about what you want to get out of a particular problem or study session and how you would be able to recognize and effectively answer a different (but similar) problem in the future. There's a lot of good stuff in the strategy section and the resources section, so take advantage of it.

Good luck!

Online only - go to www.manhattangmat.com and go to the store section. You can take the first one for free (buy the "Free GMAT Exam" that is listed for $0). You can also buy access for 1 year and take as many as you want (the first 6 tests are guaranteed to have no repeated questions).

I'd do the free one first, just to see whether you like it, and then decide whether to buy more. FYI - 1 year of free access to the tests is included with any strategy guide (book) purchase and it's actually cheaper to buy one strategy guide than it is to buy just the test access for 1 year! The only drawback is that you have to wait for the book to be delivered in order to access the tests. But if you're going to take the free test anyway, then it doesn't matter if you have to wait a week to get access to the rest.

Also a note of caution: in order to get the free test access for buying a book, it has to be a NEW book. Each book has a unique access code that is good for one-time use only, so if you buy it used and the other person has already used the code, you won't be able to use it again.

It should still work if you buy from a bookstore, as long as you bought either the 2007 edition or the third edition (I would assume the bookstore would be selling the latest edition - the third edition - but check the cover to make sure!).

There should be a code somewhere in the book - use that to log on. (Or contact [email protected] if you have any problems!)

Call first - outside of NY, our offices are only staffed when classes are being held. Also, I'm not positive, but I don't think books are sold from the offices (they're really just classrooms) - pretty much they just get book shipments for students in the classes, and those books don't have the online access codes in them (because the students are already given access as a result of taking the class). You can call 800.576.GMAT to ask about this.

GMATPrep is the best! The reason that test was excluded from this survey is because it's produced by the same people who make the real test - so obviously, it's closest to the real thing. This survey is asking for the best non-official test, or second-best overall (after GMATPrep).

At this point in your study, you (and everyone) should not look at your overall test score for improvement. You should look at the individual question types you saw on the test (and not just the 5 overall categories, but the sub-categories within each type as well).

Your first test was GMATPrep, so you can't get all of the same data b/c GMATPrep does not give it to you. But you can get a lot of data from the MGMAT test. Run the assessment reports and look for:
- areas on which you scored <50% correct
- areas on which you averaged >20sec above or >30 sec below what you were supposed to average
- areas on which there is >30sec (overall question categories) or >45sec (question subcategories) disparity in timing (in either direction) between the ones of that type that you got right and the ones that you got wrong

Also look at the question lists and review:
- problems on which you spent >30 sec above or >45sec below what you were supposed to on problems of that type
- problems below your level that you got wrong - eg, if you're currently scoring 650, look for problems in the 500-600 category

Pat yourself on the back for things on which you scored >50% correct (the higher, the better) and for things you answered correctly in the general timeframe you were supposed to spend. For things you answered correctly very quickly, do still pat yourself on the back, but know that doing something too fast increases the chances you'll make a careless mistake - so just be careful.

Note on some of the timing data: if your timing got messed up in the section (eg, you spent too much time early on and had to rush later on), then your data will be skewed because you will have been forced to do questions towards the end much faster than you'd otherwise have done them (possibly to the point of making random guesses in a few seconds). If this happened in either section, you'll have to dive down into the data for individual problems rather than use the assessment reports to do the work for you, because the average timing may seem to be okay even though you had a bunch that were too long and a bunch that were too short.

For example, perhaps your percentages show that you're not that good at geometry circle problems... but they you realize you got them both wrong because they were towards the end and you had to guess in 15sec each because you were running out of time. So maybe you do know how to do them but just mismanaged your time on other stuff.

This is how you tell where you've been improving and where you still need to improve!

Good luck!

Nope, that's fine. The overall score is not an average of the other two - it's based on the combinations of scores that people tend to get. So it's not unusual for the overall percentile to be higher or lower than the two individual percentiles.

I would never say that anyone "will score" any specific score. There are a lot of variables that go into test day.

Based on the statistical tests one so far, the standard deviation on our tests is about 50 points. That means that there is a 2/3 chance that your official test scoring level right now is within 50 points of your MGMAT practice test score and a 1/3 chance that your official test scoring level right now is outside of that range.

(This is the same way the 30 point standard deviation works on the official test by the way - same 2/3, 1/3 split in odds, but only 30 points in either direction rather than 50.)